A to do list for level 50?

[Mashugana]

I am returning and forget all there is do do in CoX. Can you help me build a to do list? What do people do for fun ast max level? What the heck does Tinpex mean? Why exemplar down? Are there missions and old stories to run for fun?

 

Here is what I have learned so far (with questions):

 

Level 50 To Do:

• Get a badge in every zone for the Long Range Teleporter
• Go after Accolade Powers
• Build Incarnate powers (no idea how to get the salvage/threads/currency)
• Team
  • What do people team for at max? Max level TF? Old low level content for fun?
• Get Reward Merits (no idea why)
• Upgrade gear to expensive sets
• Do challenges for fun (I see pylons, soloing AV, and all kinds of things but understand none of them)
• Farm (i love farming but I have no idea what to farm in this game)
• Fire Farm (I have a 50 spine/fire that can tear up +4/8 in the AH fire farms - great at leveling alts onn my second account - not sure what else it does 🙂

Anyhoo - thank for any help.  You could even post, 'here is what I do when I log in with my mian' or whatever.  I'll build the lost from all suggestions and share it back.

 

Thank you - loving the game - just need some goals at 50.

[CloudMouse]

Incarnate powers - once you level up to 50 you begin accruing several kinds of incarnate XP. This will unlock the incarnate slots. You will also begin accruing incarnate salvage (threads/shards/astral merits/empyrean merits) which is used in the incarnate window to craft recipes for each tier of incarnate power. In general: get your your powers right, slot with L50 base IOs, see what you want to improve, then go after IO sets (generally, as many rares as possible which means its a good idea to pick a variety of powers since rares are unique and can only be slotted once on your character), and *then* comb through incarnate powers to patch any performance holes or super-boost already strong stats. There is lots of conventional wisdom on what T4 incarnates work best for different AT/powerset combos. Be patient. You can absolutely farm your way towards having all the empyrean merits and threads you'll need to craft one T4 incarnate power for each slot. When you are ready to do this, craft T4 Alpha/Lore/Destiny first, as these will give you a +3 boost in incarnate trials (+1 in all other content) and make it easier for you to run that content for more loot/salvage, etc. 

 

Teaming - lots of people farm, run iTrials, weekly strike forces for extra loot (WST in game chat) and good old TFs. There are still plenty of teams running the AV arcs and radios in Peregrine too. RWZ Mothership raids and hamidons still happen frequently. 

 

Reward Merits - when you are next in City Hall, Pocket D, RWZ or other map with a merit vendor open that up and you will see a variety of uses for reward merits. A few major uses are enhancement boosters, converters and ATOs (archetype origin enhancements). To help out with this currency, many people will run the first RWZ arc from Levantara to become a member of the vanguard (which lets you collect vanguard merits in RWZ) and run one of the many RWZ mothership raids people host almost every day (MSR in game chat). 

 

Farming - there are basically two times of farming, fire farms and smashing/lethal farms all through AE. I sometimes hear about people running farmable missions but honestly not that frequently because the AE is easy to manage for this purpose. 

 

Hope this helps. 

 

CM

[Glacier Peak]

The every badge for long range teleporter accolade power is made more fun and interesting through the Tip missions that were added.

[Mashugana]

Thank you guys - I'll read up on Tip Missions, better ways to get Incarnate salvage then my AE farming, and each TF to see what is what.

 

Thank you!

[SeraphimKensai]

Honestly I have ran through most the content dozens to hundreds of times depending on the content with the exception being the Dr. Aeon TF, I've only done 11 times, and for me the thing to do is theory craft new build combinations and roll them up, part of the reason I have 117 or so lvl 50s that I use.

 

Then find a group of people to play with and be able to adapt to whatever they want to run because you'll have a toon for that.

[Without_Pause]

1 hour ago, Mashugana said:

I am returning and forget all there is do do in CoX. Can you help me build a to do list? What do people do for fun ast max level? What the heck does Tinpex mean? Why exemplar down? Are there missions and old stories to run for fun?

 

Here is what I have learned so far (with questions):

 

Level 50 To Do:

• Get a badge in every zone for the Long Range Teleporter
• Go after Accolade Powers
• Build Incarnate powers (no idea how to get the salvage/threads/currency)
• Team
  • What do people team for at max? Max level TF? Old low level content for fun?
• Get Reward Merits (no idea why)
• Upgrade gear to expensive sets
• Do challenges for fun (I see pylons, soloing AV, and all kinds of things but understand none of them)
• Farm (i love farming but I have no idea what to farm in this game)
• Fire Farm (I have a 50 spine/fire that can tear up +4/8 in the AH fire farms - great at leveling alts onn my second account - not sure what else it does 🙂

Anyhoo - thank for any help.  You could even post, 'here is what I do when I log in with my mian' or whatever.  I'll build the lost from all suggestions and share it back.

 

Thank you - loving the game - just need some goals at 50.

Tinpex are two Incarnate Trials which are run consistently as the rewards are good for the time spent and often are done back-to-back, hence Tinpex.

 

I team whatever I feel like.

 

Reward Merits are likely most often used to get Enhancement converts. Go look at a Merit vendor to see what all can be bought.

 

The most popular things to farm are fire farms. There are some for smashing and lethal damage. 

 

For Incarnates, start here.

 

[Without_Pause]

39 minutes ago, CloudMouse said:

In general: get your your powers right, slot with L50 base IOs

I would only slot level 50s in a power which needs 1-2 slots. 3 slotting is overkill. On a leveling character, I only slot level 25 commons. 

[Greycat]

RP. Don't sweat the silly numbers. It's not a competition.

[Sovera]

My signature has a guide with some information.

 

The game has no dailies so you do whatever the heck you want to do. If there is a 'to do' thing I would say it is a Tinpex (check signature) because it's 80 merits (signature) and you get the materials to craft incarnates. This is a half hour thing so worth it, but even then it's not a thing you absolutely must do because just playing will also get you incarnate crafting materials.

[Bill Z Bubba]

2 minutes ago, Greycat said:

RP. Don't sweat the silly numbers. It's not a competition.

 

Except when it is a competition. Some of us even compete with ourselves using different builds.

[Without_Pause]

11 minutes ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

Except when it is a competition. Some of us even compete with ourselves using different builds.

+1. Finally got a clean run on a big mobs farm as end issues had always seemed to kick in and detoggling led to a death which killed me and my time.  Only have a couple T3s, one T1, still missing slots, etc., but there was that moment of satisfaction knowing that was my best time yet. The difference was going T1 Ageless to T3. Well, outside of not being Def capped against Fire yet and forgetting to down a purple on occasion.

 

I also love just taking a character around solo and seeing just how far I can push it.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Without_Pause

[Oklahoman]

2 hours ago, Mashugana said:

You could even post, 'here is what I do when I log in with my mian' or whatever.

 

For me, when I log in I have a choice generally between 3 options - do I want to LEAD, do I want to FOLLOW, or do I want to FARM?

 

If I want to LEAD, then I try to get a sense of what might be running already that I tend to run. This may require me to be online doing pretty much nothing for up to 15 minutes (the length of an average BAF, I estimate) while I follow LFG. I primarily run MSRs, BAFs, LAMs, DDs, and MAGs. I have a custom popmenu for each of those, each with a unique "voice" for whatever character I choose to lead with. Part of my decision about what to run has to do with what I feel like running - a Master of Lambda run, for instance, takes 3 successful runs, which is a bit of a time commitment. I can /search RWZ and The Hive to see if there is a build up of players there, indicating an MSR or Hami may be forming already. I also sometimes just lead level 50 PI missions. If I am choosing to lead, I also then need to decide which character to play, as some of my characters are built for specific things.

 

If I want to FOLLOW, then I am probably logging in and seeing a buddy online I want to run with for a bit, so I may alt to another character. Or, I am logging in from a second account people don't associate with "Oklahoman" so I can play somewhat anonymously. (Hey, being a celebrity has a cost.) Sometimes I am learning how someone else runs something I run already, to see where I can improve my own leadership. Sometimes, I want to learn about a new part of the game to see if I want to maybe lead it myself. And, sometimes, I just want to have fun without the responsibilities of recruiting and managing a team, and retain the ability to drop out at any time.

 

If I want to FARM, then I need to decide if I want to include others or go it alone. I'm all for farming a toon through a few levels, but I would prefer to see newer players actually play the game and earn their levels that way. Just my preference. So, I don't often include others in a farm, but I do on occasion. I generally farm for influence, which I can then give away as a prize in MSRs. Farming, too, for me is somewhat meditative in that I don't have to put a lot of thought into while I am doing it.

 

Anyway, when I log in, that's generally my thought process.

[Snarky]

There is actual content as well.  Beyond using Ouroboros flashback (for badges and fun) to exemplar (lower your level) down to do story arcs.  There are many contacts that are 35-50, 40-50, and 45-50.  That means you can wait until 50 and still get every mission that contact offers.  Which….is a lot.  That is if you like to solo.  For teams there are task forces and incarnate trials and all sorts of things like TinPex and Market Crash, constant Imperious TFs running (on Excelsior anyways) and then there are the serious challenges.  The new Aeon TF.  Master badges.  The SG i run with (Cosmic Council) has a daily calendar with about 10 events a week, including Saturday night incarnate trials kicking off with Really Hard Way Magisterium badge run.  Good Luck!!!

[Doomguide2005]

Well here's a not all inclusive list of things you might do at 50.  Many can be done along the way as well.

1. Badges, stinkin' badges.  Not just for long range teleport or Accolades or merits or defeat 'X', but just to do it because, Everest like, they're there.
2. Often the above is combined with exploring all the zones because 'black' on a map is ... just wrong.
3. Or combined with looking for Easter Eggs.  Which is not to be confused with but can go along with looking for holes in the geometry (and is therefore intertwined with generalized exploring).  Examples:  Finding the secret room in Faultline or the "Dev" room in Grandville
4. Learning about and engaging in Power Leveling and Farming.  Related activities but not the same thing, and often done as a combined activity.
5. Task Forces and Trials (both Incarnate and non-Incarnate).  Done for many reasons --> Rewards (merits, Inf, salvage), Badges including Master of Badges but also defeat 'X' badges, Speed (often for rewards but it can be just for competitive fun).
6. Learn to use the Jump Geysers in the Shadow Shard zones.
7. Get certain badges while on an actual security level 1 character --> for example the Rikti Gone Wild badge
8. PvP (but hey Stinkin' Badges even if not otherwise your cup of tea).
9. Exemplar - to learn about how it works,  there are about as many reasons why as there are players.  Ranging from just doing so to help/team with friends or potential new friend to challenging oneself in or outside of Oroborous.
10. Reach the Terra Volta reactor door on a character with no travel powers (temporary or otherwise).  Just Sprint, Swift, Hurdle, and Combat Jumping.  
11. Create an SG and build a base.  
12. Lead a team, take the Star.  Follow it up with leading a League.
13. Create a character and level to 50 'Hardcore' mode --> No defeats for any reason.
14. Now do the above on SO's only.
15. Create and level to 50 (and beyond) a 'Unicorn' character.  Ideally no one else has ever played that particular pairing to before.  True Unicorns are getting rare so play one as rare as possible.
16. Create and level one of every AT.  Can be continued as 1 of every primary and secondary in that AT.
17. Play the market.  I hear it can be its own little mini game.
18. Earn the Field Crafter badge.  
19. Win a Costume contest.
20. Solo AV's and GM's.  Great now do it on an AT that 'can't do that'.  And now do it on max difficulty.
21. Do a "Completionist' run.  (Sees @Snarkyhas replied while typing, wonders if he knew what I was typing 😳)
22. Do it (completionist run) for all 3 factions (Blue, Red and Gold)
23. Level a Goldside character to 50 while remaining Goldside.
24. Design mission/story content in AE
25. Level a character using AE mission content (i.e. no farming/Power Leveling 😈)
26. Collect Shivans and Warburg 'nukes'.  Both are PvE content completed in PvP zones.  The rewards can be very useful in doing difficult content in PvE.  Earn the Longbow Mech (Recluse's Victory).  Again a useful pet one can earn while in a PvP zone.
27. Earn a Day Job badge and the associated reward.
28. PvP by Gladiator matches in the Arena.
29. Help extinguish a Fire in the Fire Event in Steel Canyon.
30. Fight against a Rikti Invasion or in  other zone events.
31. Log onto the test server and try out an alternate build or a build for a specific goal.
32. Try out an unusual build ... a petless Master Mind, 'pool boy', or man build.
33. Medal in the races held in the Ski Chalet during the Winter Event.
34. Run Radio and Newspaper missions and continue with Safeguard and Mayhem missions.
35.  

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by Doomguide2005
Added info

[Snarky]

Here is a (not quite complete) list of stuff you can run at level 50 by contact:

 

Name

Ada Wellington

Admissions Officer Lenk

Agent Hassell

Archmage Hellewise

Belladonna Vetrano (Contact)

Borea

Captain James Harlan

Captain Nolan

Carson

Crimson

Daedalus

Dr. Boyd

Dr. Huxley

Dr. Kahn

Dream Doctor

Ephram Sha

Faathim the Kind

Fireball

Flashfire

Gaussian

General Hammond

Ghost Falcon

Glacia

Harvey Maylor

Heather Townshend

Heldenjaeger

Imperious

Infernia

James Harvan

Justin Augustine

Lauren

Levantera

Longbow Special Op

Lt. Col. Flynn

Lt. Volkov

Luna

Major Richard Flagg

Marcus Valerius

Maria Jenkins

Max

Mender Ramiel

Mender Silos

Midnighter Store

Montague Castanella

Ms. Liberty

Mu'Vorkan

Number Six

Percy Winkley

Police Radio

Praetor Duncan

Prometheus

Provost Marchand (Primal Earth)

Sara Moore

Senator Decimus Aquila

Serge

Serpent Drummer

Sister Solaris

Specialist Greer

Taskmaster Gabriel

The Dark Watcher (Primal Earth)

The Lady Grey

The Pilgrim

Tin Mage Mark II

Trilogy

Warzone Agent Goddard

Wavelength

Mender Ramiel

Pillar of Ice and Flame

Abyss

Ada Wellington

Arachnos Technician

Arbiter Hawk

Arbiter Rein

Ashley McKnight

Belladonna Vetrano (Contact)

Borea

Captain Mako

Dream Doctor

Efficiency Expert Pither

Gaussian

Ghost Widow

Gorgeous Glenda

Heather Townshend

Imperious

Inconspicuous Female 39757

Infernia

Inside Information

James Harvan

Lastri Kayumanis

Leo Poggiani

Levantera

Lieutenant Harriman

Lord Recluse

Lord Schweinzer

Lovely Linda

Maharaj

Max

Mender Silos

Mr. G (Primal Earth)

Mr. Rodney

Mu'Vorkan

Number Six

Operative Grillo

Praetor Duncan

Prometheus

Protector Z-958

Ractespriel

Scirocco

Serpent Drummer

Shadow Spider

Sister Airlia

Sister Solaris

Socrates

Taskmaster Gabriel

Tavish Bell

Television

The Dark Watcher (Primal Earth)

The Facemaker

The Pilgrim

Threatening Arachnos Message

Vernon von Grun

Viridian

Warzone Operative Braun

[Shred Monkey]

I spend most of my time running Task Forces. 

 

ITF, MLTF, LRSF, LGTF, Market Crash, and Tin Mage+Apex run all run pretty often.

[Ukase]

You've gotten a lot of information. 

Some of your questions would require several pages of information to cover them completely. 
 

Topics like the "best" way to use reward merits will have varying opinions, depending on your desired objective. 
As far as incarnate materials - again, opinions will vary on the best way to acquire and use these materials. 

There's a bit of a routine debate on whether you should use threads or shards for your alpha slot, the first incarnate objective.  I won't go into that debate here - just a caveat that the rng will dictate a lot of your decisions, and the content you pursue will have some impact on the rng. So, the "best" answer for you specifically will differ, depending on what you enjoy doing. 

So many well-intentioned folks will say "This is best" or "NO! THIS is best", when sometimes, they're both wrong. What's best is often what's best for you - which may not be what's best for me. Or anyone else. You should be made aware that there's no wrong way or right way to pursue accomplishing most things in game. But, you should also recognize that a way that is not wrong may not be optimal. And even optimal may have different outcomes for different players. Pursue amusement/fun/interesting activities, whatever they may be for you. 

There is one item to add to your list that I didn't see mentioned yet: 

Pursue every badge in game. There are quite a few. 1581, give or take. Some folks pursue every badge on every character. They are few and far between though. Most that do pursue this lofty goal only do so with their favorite characters, as it's quite a bit of challenge to do this, and requires a lot of time. And, quite a bit of tedium for some of them, and a fair measure of frustration for more than a few, as they require knowledge & competence from more than just you - but from all who are teamed with you. 

 

[CaptA]

On 1/11/2022 at 10:41 AM, Mashugana said:

I am returning and forget all there is do do in CoX. Can you help me build a to do list? What do people do for fun ast max level?

 

Build a base!

[Mashugana]

Thank you all so much - I will not be bored any time soon 🙂

[Zhym]

I think you're asking "What do you do with a Level 50 character?" more than "What do you do once your character has hit Level 50?"  But FWIW, here's my list of stuff to do with a character as soon as they've hit 50:

1. Do Mender Ramiel's "Power Overwhelming" arc to get a quick Alpha slot unlock (and play in God Mode for a bit). 
2. Run the Dark Astoria arc to get lots of incarnate components and make progress toward unlocking the other incarnate slots (the story is also great).
3. Talk to Dream Doctor until you have the "Complete the Dilemma Diabolique Trial" (this will give you credit—and a badge—for having done the trial whenever you do it).
4. Run the incarnate trials.  If you care about story order, see this post and this thread.  Basically, though, the story order starts with the Apex & Tin Mage trials (the start of Cole's invasion) and finishes with the Magisterium trial.  But if you wait for PuGs for the trials to form in order, you might be waiting around a while.  Some iTrials happen all the time (BAF, Lambda), others less often (Keyes, Underground).   
5. Run Belladonna Vetrano's arc.  If you care about story order, do this before Magisterium but after all the other iTrials.
6. Join a Magisterium trial, if you've been following story order.
7. Do the arcs from Provost Marchand (for heroes) or Mr. G (for villains).  These are both some of the best story arcs in the game IMO.  You can do both of them as early as level 35, but they make much more story sense if you wait until after doing the content listed above.
8. "Finally," finish off the Praetorian arc in grand style with "Praetoria's Last Gasp" from Number Six.

I don't do all of that on all my 50s, of course.  I think I've done all the above on maybe a handful of characters.  Some, I just do "Power Overwhelming" and then iTrials.  Or I go just far enough into the Dark Astoria arc to farm Heather Townshend's arc for incarnate components.  And then there are the few toons where level 50 is the time to say, "Yup, I'm done with that power set."  But when I want to keep playing a toon I like, the list above is my starting point.

 

There are still some regular arcs at level 50, too.  I suspect everyone will have done Maria Jenkins's arc already, but Crimson also has an arc; although it's kind of annoying in an Issue 0 way (so many defeat-alls!), it's not bad from a lore standpoint.  There's also the series of missions in the Rikti War Zone that goes through the Levantera > Serpent Drummer > Gaussian > Dark Watcher series of contacts. 

 

After that, then it's time for the stuff other people have mentioned: badging, exploration, flashback missions, etc.  Lots of stuff to do at 50!

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Zhym

[Snarky]

Yeah. I am slow levelling a toon to 50.  Real slow.  But once i hit 50 the path (for me) will be similar to if i PL’d it

 

1) do the Ritki War Zone welcome to vanguard arc.  Very short.  Allows you to earn Vanguard Merits.  Contact in RWZ in base area. (Done on the above mentioned toon at 35)

 

1a) i did slap in my level 50 build on a respec right?  Dont forget!

 

2) do the Ouro arc that opens up Alpha slot.  Saves a few minutes farming and knocks out a contact iff my to do list

 

3) farm to open incarnate slots, get one or two vet levels and incarnate threads.  I do this with an alt acct.  i load in that acct with a 50 farmer then invite from my main acct. main acct doorsits and farmer works.  Before i had a farm acct I would run two-four ITF kill mosts or whatever level 50 pug TFs were inviting.  About the same really. More exciting but slightly slower in actuality 

4) start running Incarnate trials.  This gets components and threads.  If you do not do 3 above you can  do endless BAF and sLAMBDA runs.

 

5) there is a story arc in OURO (burdens of the past level 50). Takes about 15 minutes to run once you figure it out.  Rewards one incarnate component at end.  Random common uncommon rare and very rare.  Almost as good a chance to get a very rare as a common

 

6) oh look My 50 is all incarnated out! Run hard incarnate trials and join level 50 teams grinding hard content!

 

7) exemplar down and join any content with a kitted out Super ready to kick names and take ass

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Snarky

[Zhym]

4 minutes ago, Snarky said:

1a) i did slap in my level 50 build on a respec right?  Dont forget!

While I'm leveling virtually every toon, I'm thinking, "I will totally have to respec this mess when I hit 50."  Then I hit 50 and remember that respeccing is such a pain, and the incarnate abilities make up for many weaknesses, so I'm not sure I've actually done a level 50 respec yet.

[Snarky]

23 minutes ago, Zhym said:

While I'm leveling virtually every toon, I'm thinking, "I will totally have to respec this mess when I hit 50."  Then I hit 50 and remember that respeccing is such a pain, and the incarnate abilities make up for many weaknesses, so I'm not sure I've actually done a level 50 respec yet.

I respec because of the Purple sets and Superior versions mostly.  Back on Live I had my mids build that I levelled with and just slowly "grew" into it.  Unless it had purples, sigh.  But now at 50 its a swapout.  The regulars go back to base storage for the next toon and the Superiors come out of base storage and are slapped on.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Snarky

[Zhym]

16 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I respec because of the Purple sets and Superior versions mostly.  Back on Live I had my mids build that I levelled with and just slowly "grew" into it.  Unless it had purples, sigh.  But now at 50 its a swapout.  The regulars go back to base storage for the next toon and the Superiors come out of base storage and are slapped on.

Ah, that makes sense.  I thought you meant a full respec with selecting different powers and/or allocating slots differently.  Many of my toons have powers I decide I shouldn't have taken, or I'd like to use the spot taken up by a T1 power for something else, and I totally plan to do that when I hit 50...but then when I actually do hit 50, I can't bring myself to go through the respec interface to do it.

 

Swapping out enhancement sets and IOs for purples (or catalyzing ATOs into purples) is indeed one of the very first things I do when a toon hits 50.

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Zhym said:

Ah, that makes sense.  I thought you meant a full respec with selecting different powers and/or allocating slots differently.  Many of my toons have powers I decide I shouldn't have taken, or I'd like to use the spot taken up by a T1 power for something else, and I totally plan to do that when I hit 50...but then when I actually do hit 50, I can't bring myself to go through the respec interface to do it.

 

Swapping out enhancement sets and IOs for purples (or catalyzing ATOs into purples) is indeed one of the very first things I do when a toon hits 50.

....unless you are burning a lot of unslotters that is a respec.  respecs are not easy.  but i like difficult things i guess. i enjoy MiDs craziness, and cramming a "perfect" build on a toon to test it is as fun for me as Doc Buzzsaw putting strange artifacts into Freakshow to see what happens.  Difficult sure, but how else can you see how many people it will kill?